As is well known, metal window blinds more commonly known as mini-blinds and/or venetian blinds generally comprise a plurality of elongate, horizontally oriented slats which are fabricated from aluminum stock. The aluminum slat stock material is typically provided in the form of relatively large diameter aluminum slat stock rolls. During the manufacturing process, one or more rolls of the slat stock material are disposed adjacent a crowning unit which is utilized to crown the slat stock as well as out the same to a desired length. Typically, the slat stock is fed directly from the stock roll into the crowning unit wherein the diameter of the roll continuously decreases as more material is payed out from the stock roll and fed into the crowning unit.
In the prior art, it is known to place one or more rolls of slat stock material on feeding fixtures which generally comprise a base member having two or more roller members attached thereto wherein the roller members are separated in a manner adapted to support the roll of slat stock material thereon. As the material is fed into the crowning unit, the entire roll rotates upon the roller members. Though these types of feeding devices are generally suitable for feeding slat stock material into a crowning unit, these devices possess certain deficiencies which detract from their overall utility.
Particularly, such devices do not include an axle or similar structure which extends through the center of the slat stock roll or rolls disposed thereon. Rather, as previously specified, the stock rolls merely rest upon the roller members and therefore are retained on the roller members only by their weight. In this respect, as the weight of the roll decreases as more material is payed out and fed into the crowning unit, often times an abrupt pulling of additional material into the crowing unit will cause the roll to lift off the support rollers. Additionally, in such prior art feeding devices no braking force is applied to the roll while material is being payed out therefrom. This lack of an applied braking force often causes "free-wheeling" to occur wherein additional slat material is fed out from the roll though no additional material is being introduced into the crowning unit. Finally, these prior art feeding devices provide no protection or barriers between multiple rolls which may be stored thereon and thus do not protect the edges of the slat material from damage. The present invention overcomes these and other deficiencies associated with prior art slat stock material feeding devices.